Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium Gets a Release Date, Main Baddie

Looks like “District 9″ director Neill Blomkamp’s latest, “Elysium” is really picking up steam, even if it has two years before it’s expected to open in theaters. Today brings news from THR that the movie has gotten a March 8, 2013 release date from Sony, and the film has landed its main bad guy in “Elite Squad’s” Wagner Moura (below).

Moura will be joining the previously cast Matt Damon, Sharlto Copley and Jodie Foster, with Damon’s character now revealed to be an ex-con. How that fits into “Elysium’s” overall storyline is unclear, as Blomkamp and Sony are doing that “it’s a super duper secret project!” nonsense that all studios and directors love pulling these days. I blame it on J.J. Abrams for starting it.

What is known is that “Elysium” should be much bigger than Blomkamp’s “District 9″ in terms of budget and scope, given that it has big studio money behind it this time. Nevertheless, Blomkamp is expected to keep up with the whole “sci-fi as social allegory” shtick that worked so well with critics in “District 9″. Critics eat that stuff up like potheads and Cheetos.